
US farm officials forecast a tough autumn battle between Brazilian and US soybean exports, as Brazil attempts to make up for a poor start to 2012-13, with shipments hurt by logistical hiccups. US Department of Agriculture staff in Brasilia, while cutting their forecast of the Brazilian soybean crop to 82.5m tons, stood by a forecast of soybean exports of 39m tons for 2012-13, report agrimoney.

French Akuo Energy has broken ground at two maiden wind farm developments in Uruguay totalling 92MW, as it prepares to expand its footprint across Latin America.

President Barack Obama said within hours of the death of President Hugo Chavez Tuesday that the United States was interested in a constructive future relationship with Venezuela.

The UK Foreign secretary has paid tribute to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who he said left a lasting impression on his country. Chavez, 58, died on Tuesday after being seriously ill with cancer, ending his 14-year rule.

The Venezuelan government declared seven days of national mourning and suspended classes until next Friday as it organizes the funeral of President Hugo Chavez that is scheduled to take place at the Military Academy, where he will lie in state beginning Wednesday morning.

Venezuelan Vice President Nicolas Maduro will take over as interim president of the country while elections are organized within 30 days following the death of Hugo Chavez, Foreign Minister Elias Jaua announced on Tuesday.

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos regretted the loss of Hugo Chavez and attributed the advances in the peace process of his government with the FARC Marxist guerrillas (Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces) to the deceased Venezuelan leader.

All Latinamerican leaders expressed their deep sorrow over the death of President Hugo Chavez, and several of them will be travelling to Caracas for his funeral scheduled next Friday.

Venezuelan Vice-President Nicolás Maduro announced during a nation-wide transmission that President Hugo Chávez “has died today at 4:25pm.”

The dollar ‘clamp’ in Argentina had led to a ‘dollar trickle’ to Uruguayan banks, which according to official data from the two central banks can be estimated at a million dollars per day.